The present invention relates to thermostats having the capability of tracking, recording, and reporting setback information to a remotely located entity.
Thermostats have heretofore received and implemented setbacks of locally programmed setpoints in response to receiving setback information from a remotely located source such as an energy provider. An example of such a thermostat is disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/456,355 entitled "Communicating Thermostat". The aforementioned thermostat includes an ability within the thermostat to override a request by the energy provider to adjust the locally programmed setpoints. When this occurs, a communication is generated to the energy provider informing the energy provider that an override has occurred.
The above described thermostat requires that the energy provider must keep track of when such overrides occur so as to maintain an accurate record of the amount of time the thermostat has participated in a requested adjustment of the locally programmed setpoints. This can pose particular problems for an energy provider who might need to receive and process such overrides from quite a few communicating thermostats possibly at or near the same time. The energy provider must also make sure that the record or database it maintains of such override information is preserved since there is no ability to further query the individual thermostats as to their respective participation in requested setbacks or curtailments of locally programmed setpoints.